Amino Acids

Amino Acids, I’m sure you have all heard that Proteins are the building blocks to bigger muscles well here is something else for you, Amino Acids are the building blocks of protein and are used by your body for a lot of things, growing hair, skin, healing, building muscle and loads of other stuff that we probably don’t even know about.

The Key Amino acids we will be talking about are what are called Branch Chain Amino Acids or BCAA's as they are referred to. Branch Chain Amino Acids are what is used for Skeletal Muscle Growth and they are formed from other amino acids in the body.

The question that probably just came to your mind reading that are well if they are formed by our bodies already then why do we need to supplement with them, surely our bodies would make enough of them if we needed more it would make more?? This to a degree is true your body is very very smart and will do its best to form more BCAAs because it knows that you are training and will try and support that. The issue is that it cannot form BCAAs fast enough for when you need to use them. The actual amino acids responsible for muscle growth are Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine, so if you look out for these when buying your supplements you will know what includes them and doesn’t you may find a lot of the cheaper protein products on the market may say in their ingredients something like 'proprietary blend' where others will show you amounts of these amino acids, this will information will be useful to remember when doing your own comparisons for products as products with higher detail ingredients lists will no doubt be a higher quality product than those that don’t.

Have a quick watch of this video on Youtube this girl knows her stuff and keeps things simple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zGNu7Fl4Qg

They key is giving your muscles what they need to grow, and by now you have all probably heard that there is a key window of opportunity the 30-40 minutes straight after your workouts when your body is still anabolic and it draws in the majority of nutrients it needs to grow, Well if it is going to take your body an hour or two to form enough BCAAs then that’s not going to be so helpful so Taking BCAA supplements at this time will mean your body has exactly what it needs in a large dose to build muscle tissue. You can get huge gains from using amino acids in your supplement program because it could be an area your lacking by not fueling your body well enough to recover, the tell tale signs of this are muscle aches and soreness days after training hard. If you fuel your body with absolutely everything it needs then it should take no more than 24 hours maybe 48 to be ready to train again depending on the intensity of your initial workout and that you haven’t injured yourself in the process of pushing yourself to the limit.

We offer quite a range of Amino Acid Supplements, Not all of them are BCAA's some of them are designed with a slightly different result in mind such as nitrogen production. Some amino acids are quite similar to testosterone boosting supplements where they try to mimic the effects of anabolic steroids by raising your nitrogen levels in the same way steroids do to keep your body anabolic. I will point out the supplements that are designed for this purpose But I won’t go into details Ill save that for when I have more time to learn the science of it myself, For most people your intention for reading this article is to learn about BCAA's and if you wanted to learn about testosterone and Nitrogen you would be reading the sections relating to them.

Note: The same goes for amino acids as protein supplements, your body is smart and will only take in what it needs, taking too many amino acids will cause additional strain on your kidneys and they will be stored in your body as fat so be sensible and follow the directions on the containers. Do not exceed the maximum dosages, its Not Big and its Not Clever!

Amino Acid Products;

Optimum Nutrition Super Amino 2222 liquid - This is one of my preferred BCAA supplements because it shows you everything that it contains in its ingredients list you feel quite safe in the knowledge that you need to be taking certain amino acids and as I mentioned it also contains the 3 most important Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine and its also got Optimum Nutrition’s name on it so you can rest assured that its nothing but quality, It does say Proprietary blend on it but this refers to its hydrogen delivery system which is a patented Optimum Nutrition system so we can let them off for that.

Optimum Nutrition BCAA 5000 Powder - Again top product from Optimum Nutrition, contains the 3 important Branch chain amino acids. Really high quality again from Optimum Nutrition it can be better to get your amino acids from powders because you can just chuck them into your protein shake or pre-workout drink and it saves you having to muck around with other bottles or another drink or table spoons of liquid amino acids.

Sci-MX BCAA Nano Stack 120 capsules - Really good product, Comes in capsule form which is preferred by a lot of people, you might have say an apple and a drink after training and it’s easy to pop 3-4 capsules down and turn your snack into an amino packed snack which will really help with recovery. The one thing with Amino Acid Capsules is check the sizes of the containers, a 120 capsules container only contains around 40 servings, most say you should take 3 per day only on training days some say take 4-6 so keep that in mind when comparing the products, You might think one is better value than the other because you get more capsules for the money but odds on you will have to take more capsules per serving. (Perfect example is comparing BCAA Nano Stack to CNP Professional Pro Aminos 500)

CNP Professional Pro Aminos 500 - This is a good example of a classic BCAA supplement from CNP Professional, It contains only the highest quality ingredients and contains the 3 BCAA's we have said are so important plus many others but they are all in decent quantities and are all pure, No proprietary blends here however as mentioned above you have to take 10 capsules per serving so it does work out marginally more expensive per serving than Sci Mx BCAA Nano Stack but it does the job and it’s still decent value for money.

Controlled Labs Purple Wraath - This is a mix of both EAA and BCAAs, I’ve heard only good things about it so far and it contains all the important amino acids for bodybuilding so it stacks up because of its ingredients, it is a flavoured powder as well so you don’t have to mix it in with a protein shake you can take it on its own, It does contain beta alanine and a few other amino acids that you find in a lot of pre-workout and post workout recovery drinks, This makes it kind of moving into other categories rather than just Amino Acids but this is what I said above that some manufacturers are designing amino acid supplements with the view of making a product that gives a result on its own so it makes you feel a bit more pumped and focused while still achieving what you want a BCAA to achieve. My view on this is that manufacturers should be focused on making the highest quality Branch Chain amino acids that do what an amino acid should do and that you should combine these products with your supplement program to get better gains, If your amino acid supplements contained creatine and nitric oxide as well as your all in one protein supplement and your pre workout drink your just going to be pumping your body full of too much for it to handle properly and you will do yourself more harm than good.

Prolab BCAA plus 180 capsules - This is another no-nonsense Amino Acid Supplement it contains the 3 important ones plus added vitamin C and vitamin B-6. If you are on a good supplement plan already and you just want to add Amino Acids to your program then this is a good way to do it as it doesn’t contain anything else and it shouldn’t effect you negatively by over dosing you with things you already get enough of from other supplements.

So to Conclude;

Amino Acids, Branch Chain Amino Acids, BCAAs are very important to your recovery and building muscle tissue, without them well..... We wouldn’t grow at all.

The rule of thumb for bodybuilders would be if you currently use a protein product and maybe a creatine and not much else then take your pick of whatever you like Amino Acid wise try and find something that works for you and that fits into your diet well.
For those that Already have quite a sophisticated supplement program who don’t currently use amino acids should look to get something pretty plain and simple without any added ingredients because you may just be filling yourself up with things you already have enough of and the rest you will be wasting and causing a strain on your kidneys trying to get rid of all the excess.